


Cats Ears

by ArielWeathers



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Getting Together, jily, mentions of Peter Pettigrew
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-11
Updated: 2016-07-15
Packaged: 2018-06-07 18:52:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6820012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArielWeathers/pseuds/ArielWeathers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lily Evans has hexed James Potter one too many times. James retaliates appropriately.</p><p>Cross-posted on FF.net as Ariel Weathers</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

‘Potter. You do not understand. I do not like you. I will never like you. Get over it,’ Lily Evans and James Potter were arguing. It wasn’t a rare thing, however, because they fought non-stop. James had made the mistake of asking Lily out when she was in an extremely bad mood.

‘No, Lily. I do not understand. Why don’t you like me? Every other girl in the school does!’ James had a huge ego. He was the chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, he was popular, he hexed people just because they annoyed him, he pulled pranks on the school regularly and he was in love with Lily Evans.

‘Well, as you can see, I AM NOT EVERY OTHER GIRL IN THIS SCHOOL!’ Lily was a worker. She was very studious, but had a fiery hot temper to match her fiery red hair. She always did her homework, never got detention, had been elected as the female Gryffindor Prefect, her partner being Remus, and hated James Potter.

‘Merlin, Lily, don’t need to shout! I’m just trying to prove a point,’

‘Merlin, Potter, don’t need to inflate your ego more than you have already,’

‘Ouch, Lils, that stings,’

‘Don’t you DARE call me Lils,’

‘I will call you Lils all I want, Lils’

‘That is IT!’ with a flick of her wand, she sent a bat-bogey hex straight at James, hitting him square in the face.

James, however, knew the counter curse and immediately used it. His face was filled with disappointment from Lily’s violent and short-tempered rejection. His next move caught Lily by surprise. He sent a hex straight at her.

At first, Lily didn’t know what he had done to her. Then she felt something protruding from the top of her head. She looked at James suspiciously and ran to her dorm, where there was a mirror.

She reached the mirror and gasped — James had given her cats ears.

‘POTTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’ Lily was fuming. ‘I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!’

Lily ran down the stairs and whipped out her wand. But James was nowhere to be seen.

‘WHERE IS POTTER?!’ Lily barked at Sirius, who was sitting in front of the fire, snickering.

‘He ran away when you did’ Remus replied, ignoring the death stare Sirius was giving him, ‘He’s at the Astronomy Tower,’

‘Thanks, Remus’ As she ran through the castle she was very puzzled. What has gotten into him?

———————————————————————————————————————————

When Lily reached the door of the astronomy tower, she stopped and caught her breath. The door was slightly ajar so Lily peeped through the gap. James was leaning over the railing, looking over the grounds. It wasn't until he wiped his face and sniffed that she realised he was crying.

Lily walked through the door and it opened with a creak. James didn't look back and just said, ‘Go away, Padfoot. I want some time alone.’

‘Um, James?’ Lily said, amused. 

James spun around, his face filled with sadness but you could see the humour in his eyes - he was staring at her ears.

‘Lily, what are you doing here? How did you find me?’ He sounded extremely nervous.

‘I came here to find and potentially kill you. And as for finding you, Remus told me.’ Lily had temporarily forgotten about her plan to kill him when she had reached the tower.

‘Please don’t kill me Lily, thats my own spell, and only I know the counter-curse’ James was getting more and more worried by the second. He knew how destructive Lily could be.

‘I said “potentially”. I don’t plan on killing you any more,’ Lily’s voice was soft.

James took his wand out of his back pocket and silently removed Lily’s ears. Neither of them said anything, just stared into each others eyes.

‘Thanks,’ Lily breathed under her breath, breaking the eye contact, determined not to have anything “romantic” happen between them. She smiled a small smile, turned, and left James standing in the astronomy tower. He then turned and proceeded to look over the balcony again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which everyone goes to charms

Lily had not slept well. She was kept awake, thinking about the ‘astronomy tower incident’, as she liked to call it. As she walked through the great hall on her way to a seat at the Gryffindor table for breakfast, she almost tripped over three first years, bumped into the seats about twenty times and actually tripped over Mrs. Norris. As she was falling, she managed to make a whole group of students to join her in her fall.

Everyone in the Great Hall stopped what they were doing and stared at Lily and her companions. They were all silent until a Slytherin shouted, ‘LOOK! LILY EVANS IS ON THE FLOOR!’ and proceeded to laugh. This made the whole Great Hall laugh.

Lily got up, her face red, and promptly ignored the angry words coming from the mouths of those who fell with her. She found Alice, her best friend, and sat down beside her. Neither girl said anything, they just ate. Lily didn’t eat much. She got up and left, being more careful this time, and proceeded to Charms.

————————————————————

James had not slept at all. He had spent his whole night on the astronomy tower, thinking and watching and relaxing. He saw that the sun was just coming up, so he decided to go to class. He didn't go to breakfast, knowing he could get some later from the kitchens. He went up to his dorm, where he found three empty beds - Remus’, Peter’s and his own. Sirius’ bed, not surprisingly, was still occupied. James sighed and got ready for class. He was already wearing his uniform, but he needed his books.

When he was ready, he headed down into the common room, where he ran into Alice.

‘What did you do to Lily? You must have done something, she looks upset and she only gets upset because of you. Well, not just you, Black also,’ She paused her rant to breathe, ‘Lily tripped over a bunch of people in the Great Hall today, she looked really tired as well. So? What did you DO?’

‘I hexed her,’ he started, but seeing the look on Alice’s face, he added, ‘But then I took it off! The last time I saw her, she looked happy…’ he trailed off, his brow furrowed. What has gotten into her?

———————————————————————————————————————————

Flitwick greeted his students at the door. He had a mischievous grin on his face. Lily looked at Alice as if to say Oh dear and Alice nodded her head in agreement.

‘Good morning, class!’ The short professor said merrily. ‘Today we will be having a practical lesson, however I am choosing who you will work with’

The whole class groaned. Flitwick ignored them and let them into the classroom. On his desk, there were two large glass bowls, filled with strips of paper and the class groaned again.

Flitwick walked up to his desk and stood behind the two bowls. He knew that no one needed an explanation of what he was doing, so he grabbed a name out of the first jar.

‘Sirius Black’ He paused as he picked out a second name, ‘and Remus Lupin.’

‘But Sir, he’s going to make me do work!’ Sirius pouted. As much as he liked his best friend, he liked not doing work more.

‘Good. Lily Evans,’ Flitwick’s words were sharp and Remus told Sirius to stop whinging, ‘James Potter,’

‘But sir, he’s not going to do any work!’ Lily unknowingly copied Sirius’ tone of voice and sentence structure.

‘Of course I will, Lily,’ He smiled the smile he used to charm other girls, earning a disgusted look from the redhead. Flitwick continued to call out names. Lily watched as Alice got paired with Severus, and James watched as Peter got paired with a Slytherin girl whom he did not know. 

When he was finished, Flitwick launched into the lesson plan. ‘Today we will be practising non-verbal spells. Choose your favourite Charms spell and see if you can do it without saying anything,’

Lily wasted no time in starting her spell, first muttering it under breath, then not saying anything. After a few tries, she managed to do it.

‘Wow, Lily, thats amazing. How did you master that so quickly?’ James was genuinely amazed and looked at her for an answer.

‘I don’t know, I just did it,’ She replied, realising she didn't actually know the theory of her actions, ‘Why don’t you try?’

So James tried. And failed. Tried again, failed again. He tried all through the lesson, but couldn't do it, ‘I give up! I. Give. Up. I can’t do it!’

‘Yes you can, you just have to keep -‘

‘Trying? I’ve been trying this whole lesson, Lily, I just can’t do it.’

‘Be that way, Potter,’ Lily grabbed her bag and left, as the bell had gone.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lily is hungry

After a hard day, Lily finally retreated to her room. She finally had time to mull over her feelings. She couldn’t like James, could she? She had always hated his arrogance and how over-inflated his ego was. But maybe there was a good side too him. She lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling for quite some time before Alice came in, asking her if she was going to accompany her, Remus and Peter to dinner.

 

‘Sorry, Alice, but I don’t feel like eating right now,’ And she genuinely didn’t. Her head was all over the place and she just needed some time to chill out.

 

‘Oh, Ok. Should I save you a seat? Or bring some food with me when I come back?’ Alice was very gentle when she saw Lily like this.

 

‘Nah, I’ll be fine. I promise,’ She sat up and smiled a weak smile at Alice, who grinned back and left.

 

———————————————————————————————————————————

 

Three hours had passed, all of which Lily had spent studying and doing her homework. She hadn't noticed she was hungry until now. She started to grab all the books, parchment and quills scattered all over a common room table but stopped when she heard a sound. She whipped around and applied the _Lumos_ charm non-verbally. _Yes!_ She thought. _No! Why is it always him?_ She was face to face with none other than James Potter.

 

‘Potter!,’ She hissed, ‘What are you doing here?’

 

‘I could ask you the same question,’ He whispered back, ‘Why are we whispering?’

 

Lily shrugged and had resumed packing up when her stomach decided to give a rather loud growl. She went beetroot red and looked over at James to see if he had noticed. He had.

 

‘Come with me, I want to show you something,’ His voice was calm and rather soothing,and the redhead was very taken aback. He started walking towards the portrait hole and she followed. He stopped abruptly at the door and Lily crashed into him.

 

‘Watch where you're going Lily!’ He said. He was trying to take something out of his pocket, but not succeeding, ‘Hold my wand.’ 

 

Lily took the wand that was practically forced into her hand, and tried to shine the light on James’ pocket.

 

‘There,’ He said, finally pulling a large piece of cloth out of his pocket. He took his wand off Lily and flung the cloth over his body. Lily could no longer see him.

 

‘Potter?’ She asked, genuinely confused.

 

‘Yes?’ Came a voice from where James was previously standing.

 

‘Where are you?’

 

‘Oh! Sorry, I forgot you didn’t know…’ Without warning, his hand came out of nowhere and dragged Lily towards him. ‘This is my invisibility cloak,’

 

Lily didn’t say anything, she just gawked. James didn't want to waste time, so he put his hand on the small of Lily’s back and gently pushed her through the portrait hole. They walked through the corridors and ended up in the entrance hall. Lily, still gawking, asked where they were going. James just put a finger to his lips and kept walking.

 

‘Why are we in the Hufflepuff corridor?’ Lily whispered, having finally stopped gawking. James didn't say anything until they stopped in frond of a painting of a fruit bowl.

 

‘We’re going to get you some food,’ He replied, tickling the pear. As Lily watched, transfixed, the pear transformed into a door handle. James turned it and the secret door swung open. He took the cloak off and smiled.

 

‘Master Potter, what can I get for you?’ To Lily’s surprise, a house elf came up to James and started fussing over him. He put a hand up to ask them to wait and asked Lily, ‘What do you want to eat?’

 

‘Anything - I’m starving!’ She exclaimed as she sat down at one of the many tables. The house elves brought her a plate of leftover food from dinner. ‘Thank you,’ She said with a smile.

 

———————————————————————————————————————————

 

‘Lily! Where have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you! It’s almost midnight!’ Alice was right on Lily’s case as she walked into their dorm.

 

‘Eating,’ Lily replied. She didn't want to tell Alice that she had had a surprisingly wonderful time with James Potter.

 

‘Where? With who? I told you I could have brought you some food!’ Alice wasn't giving up easily.

 

‘I can’t tell you,’ Lily mumbled. Alice was shocked. Lily usually told her everything, ‘I’m going to bed. I’m really tired. I’ll talk to you in the morning’

 

Lily pushed past Alice and climbed into her bed, still in her robes, and fell sound asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning, James was awoke by Sirius jumping on him.

’Padfoot… What are you doing?’ James groaned.

‘Waking you up, Prongsie,’ James found his early morning enthusiasm strange. He usually didn’t wake up until he and Remus literally dragged him out of bed.

‘What time is it?’ James groggily sat up and reached for his glasses.

‘7:30,’ Remus told him, ‘I don’t know what’s gotten into him,’

‘You and Lily!’ Sirius exclaimed.

‘Me and Lily? Are you insane? She’d never go out with me…’ James loved Lily, but he knew she’d never say yes. He failed to realise, however, that Lily didn't hate him anymore. She was confused about her feelings. He tried to be nice yet he failed to see that she was grateful, deep down in her heart.

‘Yes she will! And I’m gonna help!’ Sirius was acting like a child at Christmas.

‘Oh no….’ James knew this wasn’t going to end well.

———————————————————————————————————————————

James had managed to slip away from Sirius after breakfast. He was walking to class when he heard shouting in one of the classrooms. The door was ajar and he peered through the tiny gap. Two of the younger students were getting shouted at by a large group of older ones. The younger ones looked like first years, the older ones could have been fourth or fifth years.

James stood there for a moment, weighing up his choices. He could walk away and pretend he’d never seen it, or he could barge into the classroom and save the first years. He thought the latter would make him look like a hero, but thats not why he chose it. He chose it because he was a Gryffindor, and Gryffindors are brave.

The older students looked up as he walked through the door. They laughed as he walked in and said, ‘Oooh! Its a Quidditch Player. They think they're so strong and handsome.’

The younger students found this moment a distraction and ran out of the room. None of the bullies cared about them anymore.

James whipped out his wand, knowing he would need it. He pointed it at the bullies and put on the scariest face he could, which, to be honest, wasn't that scary. One of the boys snickered. James pointed his wand at him, an incantation on the tip of his tongue, when he heard a voice.

‘I knew it was too good to be true,’ Lily had walked into the room to find something, and saw James pointing his wand at a fourth year Slytherin and was about to hex him. She scanned the room for what she “needed”, realised it wasn't in the room, turned and left.

‘Lily! Wait!’ James rushed out of the room, following Lily. She was running through the crowds of people heading to class, bumping them, bashing them and flat out running into them. She didn't apologise, just kept running.

———————————

That morning, Lily had got up later than usual due to her late arrival to bed. Alice hadn't woken her up, partly because she was still mad at Lily from the previous night and partly because she knew Lily needed to rest.

In her dream, Lily had been in History of Magic, listening attentively to Professor Binns, when he had suddenly turned into James. He then started talking about a girl he was dating, saying she was beautiful and perfect. Lily had started to get jealous. He was about to say his girlfriends name when she woke up.

‘Alice,’ Lily nervously tried to get her best friends attention, ‘Alice!’

Alice stopped what she was doing and turned around, ‘Yes?’

‘I need to talk to you about Potter,’ At this, Alice ran towards Lily and sat down on the side of her bed, her grin getting larger with every moment. Lily couldn't hold in her smile and was soon grinning as broadly as her best friend. She quickly explained her predicament to Alice.

‘What’s wrong with me? I can’t be falling for Potter, can I?’ Lily was fretting. During her explanation, she had packed her things. By this stage, they were halfway down the girls staircase.

‘I’m afraid you are, Lily. I assure you, he’s a good guy. He’ll treat you well if you decide to go out with him,’

There was a pause. Lily sighed. She didn’t know what to do. Alice smiled, ‘Just go for it,’ she said and gave Lily a playful nudge. 

‘I’ll see if Remus knows where he is,’ Lily said, spotting her prefect partner in the common room. Lily walked towards Remus and Peter, who had just appeared, and stopped in front of them.

‘James and Sirius went down early for breakfast,’ Remus told Lily, not looking at her.

‘Sirius? Early? You’ve got to be joking!’ Lily exclaimed so loud that the whole common room stopped to look at her, ‘Carry on,’ She said, her cheeks pink.

‘What did I hear about me?’ A bouncy voice said right next to Lily. She jumped and turned around.

‘Sirius! Don’t creep up on people like that!’ She said, her heart pumping fast.

‘Sorry, Lily-flower, but I heard my name just as I was walking in here,’

‘I was asking Remus why you were up so early,’ She replied.

Sirius’ next words took her by surprise. He whispered them in her ear, ‘James is in our Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. I need you to pretend to find something in there, and strike up a conversation with him,’

He winked at her shocked face and bounded up the boys staircase.

————————

Lily found herself wandering towards the room Sirius had told her about. The halls were packed with students, classes were due to start in a few minutes. She got to the door, looked in and said, ‘I knew it was too good to be true.’ As she had seen James about to hex David, the fourth year Slytherin. She ran through the halls, crying and running into people. She ignored James’ shouts of her name, and ran right to Myrtle’s bathroom, where no-one would bother her.

A few seconds later, however, she heard the door open and footsteps come towards her.

‘Lily, please, it was all a misunderstanding,’ James’ face was full of sadness, he was on the verge of crying.

‘No!’ She sent a bat bogey hex at James, who immediately used the counter curse, ‘You haven’t changed! My friends say you would treat me well, but I know you will just hex helpless students behind my back!’

James, remembering the incident a few days ago, sent the “cat ear” spell at Lily. She felt the familiar sensation of ears protruding from the top of her head. She stopped her rant and stared at him.

‘It wasn’t what it looked like,’ James said in a soft voice, ‘I promise,’


	5. Chapter 5

_‘It wasn’t what it looked like,’ James said in a soft voice, ‘I promise,’_

Lily’s lip quivered, ‘Take them off,’

‘Listen to me Lily, you can’t ignore perfectly good reasoning,’ James was losing his temper.

‘I saw you about to hex David. You’re no different than you were before!’ After a short pause, she added in a soft voice, ‘And to think I was falling in love with you,’

‘You w-w-were falling i-in love w-with m-me?’ James’ heart was pounding hard in his chest, his eyes on the verge of tears. Lily was shocked at his reaction and a look of concern replaced the one of anger, ‘I was just trying to save some first-years from being bullied by David and his friends,’

He could no longer hold his tears in. They spilled out of his eyes and down his cheeks. He sank to the floor, leaning on a sink for balance. Lily rushed over to him, forgetting their conflicts for a moment and put her arm around him. She realised from his tears that he hadn’t been lying about before.

————————————

‘How do you think the plan is working?’ Sirius asked Remus excitedly. Neither James nor Lily were in class, and it had started 5 minutes ago.

‘I have a bad feeling about it,’ Remus replied. He decided to see where the two were.He told Sirius what he was doing, and told the teacher he was going to the bathroom. He wandered through the corridors, looking in broom closets and empty classrooms.

He was about to give up when he heard sobbing coming from Myrtle’s bathroom. He opened the door and, sure enough, there was someone crying. He saw James sitting on the floor, tears streaming down his cheeks. Lily was there, with her arm around him, whispering comforting things into his ear. On her head were the same pair of cat ears that she had had a few days ago. Neither of them heard him open the door, so he slowly closed it and walked back to class.

When he got back, Sirius assaulted him with questions, ‘Did you find them? Were they kissing? Or hugging? Was he asking her to marry him? Were the riding the giant squid? Are they -‘

‘What was that last one?’ Remus said, with a confused smile.

‘I’m not exactly sure, I was making them up as I went along,’

The pair of Marauders started laughing hysterically at something that was not particularly funny. Everyone in the class stopped what they were doing and looked at Sirius and Remus. They suppressed their giggles and cleared their throats. Slowly, everyone went back to what they had previously been doing. Remus then explained to Sirius what he had seen, and Sirius’ face went from gleeful to forlorn.

‘It’s the first time I’ve seen James cry,’ Remus looked worried. Sirius patted him on the back and didn't say anything.

———————————

James calmed down after a while. He then realised that Lily’s arm was draped over his shoulder, and snuggled into her embrace. Lily recoiled at this, because she wasn’t expecting it.

‘Sorry,’ James mumbled as he stood up.

‘No, I’m sorry. I took my hand away. Also, I’m sorry I didn’t believe you about David. It was silly of me to assume you were picking a fight,’

James smiled weakly, ‘Are you really falling in love with me?’

Lily had forgotten she had said it and started to feel very nervous, ‘I, um, I meant, er, um-‘

She was cut off from her incoherent babble when James wrapped his arms around her, ‘Because I fell in love with you years ago. And I don’t plan on stopping loving you any time soon,’

At this, he leaned his head down and pressed his lips to hers, but only for a moment. When he broke away, Lily answered his original question, ‘Yes, I am.’

She smiled and gave him a small hug and a kiss on the cheek, ‘We need to get to class.’

‘But we look filthy!’

Lily quickly fixed that with a spell.

‘You are the most amazing witch in the entire world,’ James said to her, resulting in her face turning red. She reached for the door handle.

‘Lily!’ He gestured towards her head.

‘What?’ She sounded worried. She thought there was something really wrong with her head. When she got to the mirror, however, she smiled.

‘Do you want me to take them off you?’ James was confused. He thought she hated them.

‘No. They remind me of you, and how much I love you.’

She walked up to James and, on her tiptoes, started kissing him. He happily obliged.

———————

James told Sirius that night about how he and Lily got together. He left out the part about the crying, and Sirius didn't tell him that Remus had been spying on them.

Lily had gone to bed after all of her classes, still with the cats ears protruding from her head. The last thing she thought about was James, and that made her feel a whole lot better the next morning.


End file.
